Thursday, February 16, 2012

Our Homeschool Week

In my life this week…

It's been a pretty busy week for us this week - yet not too much! We always spend plenty of down time at home as well. We began the week celebrating Valentines day with some homeschool friends at Shamrock park in Venice, FL

We hadn't been there before, but the boys were totally impressed with the bike and hiking trails. Although we had a good time exchanging Valentines and treats with homeschoolers - and I met some new homeschool mommies - we really enjoyed exploring a new (to us) park!

In our homeschool this week…

The boys made clay "stone" runes - and learned to write/ carve their name like a Viking!

We studied the atmosphere and charted the weather and clouds

and painted a big picture of the layers of the atmosphere to help remember them

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Put on the whole armor together before you start school!

The boys did this for our Children's Church project and have been talking about it all week!

I am inspired by…

YOU! Homeschool mommies and bloggers inspire me every day!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

We were impressed with the little nature center at Shamrock park and plan to go back again to further explore the butterfly garden and take a long bike ride. We loved seeing the Florida Panther they had on display (although I hate to know that she'd been killed) - too many of them are loosing their natural habitat here in Florida and end up hit by cars and such. They are beautiful animals - we have a couple of them in our own neighborhood. We also liked examining the FL Scrub Jay nest and were able to identify the Palm fibers it was made out of during our nature walk.

The Scrub Jays in Florida are also a protected species who's habitat has been threatened due to population growth. They are intelligent birds - I've had them sit on my finger plenty of times while on hikes in the scrub - although I must tell you not to touch them - there is a fine for that.

They use their sharp little beaks to strip strings of fiber from the Cabbage Palms and Palmetto and skillfully fashion them into a proper nest.

My favorite thing this week was…

Making/ canning homemade strawberry jam!

What’s working/not working for us…

Our Cooking 101 Class is going quite well - the boys are learning some much needed skills and I find that being in the kitchen is a great place to get them to really open up. They talk while they work on whatever project I've assigned them - like chopping mushrooms and such. I enjoy the time we spend around the center island in our kitchen - it's become the physical heart of our home for sure.

Our homemade bread and jam worked for me pretty well too ;) can you tell I'm excited about this? I want to learn to do more canning and freezing - we are planting a veggie garden soon!

Things I’m working on…

New Link Up! Please join us by linking up any post with tips for getting/ teaching kids in the kitchen or family friendly recipes the whole family can enjoy! This is the first week of my first link up and I'm thrilled to have you participate.

Favorite Resource This Week...Freebies... I'm also joining MomsMustardSeeds in reading and studying the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence along with Founders Academy - there are links to the important documents our country was founded on along with other valuable information to use in teaching your children about how our country works/ or is supposed to work! I HIGHLY recommend it-

I’m cooking…

Had to have something to put that jam on!

I’m grateful for…

GeoMatters Curriculum - we are really truly enjoying it!

Major Prize alert!

I'll be giving away a set - For the Teach Them Diligently Convention here on my blog the last week of February- You don't want to miss out on this fabulous opportunity for homeschool families!

I’m praying for…

The prayer list is long right now - how about yours? If you have a prayer request feel free to either leave it in the comments or email me at kellidparker@yahoo.com with "prayer" in the subject line - and I promise to lift up your needs and to try to encourage you. I've been encouraged by so many of you - isn't that what it's all about after all? Relationship - and sharing God's love?

Picture or Quote to Share...

Particularly if you are a church leader - or small group leader - please consider sharing this new movie. It is up for an award at the upcoming Christian movie festival in Texas - and is a first class documentary about adoption and the role of Christians in adoption.

"We are not all called to adoption - but we are all called to care for orphans"

I am sharing adoption stories from around the web in support of adoption and the movie release.

Kelli, Oh, how I wish we lived closer! You had such a fun week with your boys....that outing to the park for Valentine's Day looks great. OK..I really need to do more hands on activities...that I keep putting off!!! We were so good at them until this year....OK...time for me to stay saying 'i need to'....and just do it...starting today....HUGS!

Thanks for sharing your week with us! Looks as if you have great fun. I'd love to have your strawberry jam recipe. I really want to try canning this year. We are planning our garden too. What's going into yours? Are you coming to the Teach Them Diligently conference? Happy Friday, friend! ☺

Shamrock park looks like a cool place to visit. I've been looking for something like that for my daughter, who lives in FL. But it is way too far south for her.We are studying weather also. One day we'll be making jam...I hope!

I wanted to say thank you so much for stopping by and visiting my blog. You have a wonderful one, it almost made my head spin to see how busy you were this week! And so happy that you are in Florida - I'm in Northern Canada so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous.